In the world, there are innumerable land sites, such as vacant land, that are underutilized due to different factors. There are also diverse recreational, educational, sports, and commercial venues that have contiguous large pieces of land that could benefit from its development. Such sites, with limited or no use, generally have to pay monthly or annual maintenance fees or taxes, with little or no direct income resulting from its use. For example, it is estimated that in the U.S., up to 25% of the total land area in cities is composed of vacant land (according to experts), and it is recommended that such spaces be managed more efficiently to meet the current and future requirements of urban residents. This urban vacant land includes land that can be used for future real estate development, among other uses. Additionally, there are sites that have no use, such as greenfields, brownfields, or agricultural or uncultivated land that can be found relatively near urban centers.
Examples of the diverse recreational, educational, sports, and commercial venues with contiguous sites noted above are event arenas, museums, amusement parks, water parks, stadiums, golf courses, membership clubs, zoos, aquariums, shopping centers, university campuses, casinos, cruise ship ports, speed tracks, horse race tracks, and Olympic venues, among others.
It has been estimated that there are more than 100,000 of these types of venues around the world based on the inventor's research, where a large portion of them have nearby or contiguous land that is currently underutilized or has limited use, representing a large worldwide market for the implementation of new and innovative concepts that efficiently utilize the aforementioned sites, and that drastically improve and change the lifestyle of people living in close proximity to these sites. Additionally, many of these venues have large associated infrastructure such as parking lots, access routes, and large spaces that are underutilized or with low utilization rates. For example, some stadiums are used only once or twice per week, where the rest of the time their existing infrastructure has no alternative or additional use. The same happens in the infield of horse and car race tracks, which often are not used or only used during racing events (i.e., and not for alternative or additional purposes). In addition, some race tracks have closed and so the structures are not being efficiently used.
It is also important to note that there are currently several significant trends occurring around the world in connection with retail shopping. More specifically, shopping malls and stores are closing their doors at unprecedented rates. This makes available large empty spaces that can be reinvented and used for other purposes. It is estimated that one quarter of all shopping malls in the U.S. are expected to shutter in the next five years (according to predictions by Credit Suisse). In many cases, such spaces are no longer offering what the public is looking for, like recreational and cultural activities, a gathering place to spend time with family and friends, additional amenities, and a setting to relax and improve physical and mental health.
Another significant recent trend is that golf courses have gone from explosive growth to high closure rates. More than 800 golf courses have closed in the U.S. over the last decade, according to Bloomberg. The reason often proffered is that golf is not a family friendly sport, causing a declining interest from people who are looking for new activities and experiences to share with their families and friends. Golf course closures leave operators with large pieces of land that may be abandoned. This creates a large problem where vacant sites may end up transforming into derelict sites. Again, closures reflect people's changing preferences for entertainment and leisure, aiming for outdoor recreational and cultural activities, and treasuring family and friend's time, looking for a new and dream-like meeting point.
Therefore, the increasing availability of vacant, limited use land, underutilized land or land that is contiguous or nearby recreational, educational, sports, or commercial venues is an untapped market that has had no innovations over the last years and that could be paired with a newly created complex that appeals to people living around the complex and which leads to more efficient uses.
In addition to the availability of underutilized spaces, urban life and necessities have also evolved over the years. Publicly accessible open recreational spaces have decreased due to urbanization and population growth. It is often expressed that living in large cities has become more and more stressful. With mote than 50% of people in the world living in urban areas as mentioned by the United Nations, there is an increasing and very important need to provide attractive and versatile recreational spaces, especially outdoors, that can help people get out of their stressful routines and relax in a peaceful, paradisiacal environment. According to these trends, the era of gathering in closed spaces such as malls, movie theaters, and confined gyms is waning, with a desire for open and paradisiacal spaces to improve the lifestyle of people around the world.
Paradisiacal and tropical beaches have been found to be one of the preferred destinations for people all over the world. The desire to relax and enjoy outdoor experiences is universal, especially during summer and warmer months. Tropical settings and beaches are one of the most preferred spots among international travelers. Additionally, beaches are very popular for domestic travelers, motivated to get away from normal, everyday life and to relax and rejuvenate in a tropical paradise. People in general seek to visit and be part of recreational destinations, especially close to the sea and beach areas. For example, in the U.S., the shoreline constitutes less than 10% of the total land area (not including Alaska), but accounts for 39% of the total population, according to the National Ocean Service. However, many of the beaches found in the shoreline are not suitable for swimming, are very windy have dark sand, and present safety concerns in terms of currents, surf, marine life, rocks, and/or other associated risks. This creates a situation where many people do not swim or practice water sports in or around such beaches.
Instead, people dream of white sandy beaches with tropical turquoise-colored waters. Their dreams include being immersed in a beach setting, with the look and feel of tropical environments, enjoying an idyllic lifestyle next to pristine-clear waters with natural wave movement. Also, in these types of settings, in addition to swimming, practicing water sports is a popular activity demanded by people. Such water sports cannot be practiced in backyard or community pools.
Conventional swimming pools simply do not allow for the incorporation of these idyllic beach amenities. For the purposes of the present invention, and based on its worldwide definition, a conventional swimming pool is defined as an impervious water body built out of concrete or similar materials, and that for its operation requires to filter the complete water volume contained in the pool 4 times per day, and also requires maintaining a permanent residual chlorine level of at least 1.0 ppm in the complete water volume according to regulations in Florida such as Rule 64E-9 from the Florida Department of Health).
Even though a public pool provides a swimmable body of water, it does not resolve the key parameters required to generate a beach lifestyle look and feel, an urban beach entertainment complex, and the sensation of being in a tropical setting. Several of the reasons include: (i) very high construction and operation costs, comprising electricity and chemical requirements, which limit their sizes—therefore only small pools are built; (ii) general use of right angles, straight lines and artificial looking shapes; (iii) they do not generally have beach areas with sand; (iv) the color of the water appears artificial and unnatural due to their small dimensions and low depths; (v) they do not have a natural wave motion since their sizes do not allow fetch length to create larger and more natural waves; (vi) they do not enable the practice of water sports due to their low depths and small sizes; (vii) they have a strong chlorine or chemical smell; (viii) and generally they are not surrounded by a tropical or beach-life scenery with docks. In more detail:    (i) Conventional swimming pools are very expensive to build and maintain, and they are generally built out of thick concrete structures with an artificial look.            For example, the “Fleishhacker Pool” located in California, with a surface of 15,000 m2, had to be closed in 1971 due to water quality problems and high costs. There are several additional examples of this happening around the world.        Based on real swimming pool construction costs, an Olympic sized pool of around 1,000 m2 costs about $1.8 million USD in direct construction costs and uses more than 23,000 kWh of monthly electricity and more than 25 gallons per day of chlorine, equivalent to more than $6,000 in direct monthly operation costs. Escalating the size and volume of such conventional pools renders extremely high costs of construction, especially due to the use of a thick concrete bottom with waterproof paint and large and expensive equipment to maintain water quality. Therefore, since escalating the size of conventional swimming pools is economically and technically difficult, they do not achieve large enough dimensions to resemble tropical seas and/or to practice water sports.        Operating costs of large pools are high and become economically prohibitive, due to an intensive electricity consumption to filter the complete water volume 4 times per day, and due to the use of chlorine to maintain a high and permanent chlorine level. Therefore, pools have a very high carbon footprint, which impacts the sustainability of such structures.            Public swimming pools are usually built with straight lines, straight angles and rectangular shaped geometries, which divert from natural and curved-shaped water bodies that resemble tropical seas or shores.    Pools do not usually include sandy beach areas, generating a more artificial look. Conventional pools are usually built out of thick concrete and coated with paintings or tiles, which generate the look of an artificial structure used to contain water, but not the look of an idyllic beach with white sandy beaches that resemble that of the tropics.    (iv) The color and tonality of the water achieved by swimming pools is usually artificial-looking due to their depths. Since pools usually have depths of up to 1.5 m, the reflection of the sun from the bottom of the pools do not generate an intense and deep turquoise color, such as the pristine turquoise color found in tropical seas. Also, since pools are small in size, they convey the sensation of being immersed in an artificial rather than a beach-like setting.    (v) Due to their small sizes, the wave action generated in pools looks artificial with poor surface water movement. The small sizes, and specifically the short lengths of pools (longest distance from one point on the perimeter of the pool to another point located in the perimeter of the pool) create a situation where the wind does not influence the surface of a small pool noticeably. The influence of the wind over a large distance above the water is called “fetch length”, which influences the surface wave movement of the water. Small pools with small surfaces do not allow fetch length to occur and therefore do not generate larger, more natural-looking waves and wave action.
(vi) Conventional pools also do not usually provide the conditions to practice water sports, as many water sports require large surface areas and greater depths, which cannot be attained by conventional swimming pool construction and operation technologies since it is technically and economically unviable to build and maintain at a large scale. Water sports not usually practiced in small pools comprise sailing, rowing, windsurf, water skiing, cable skiing, use of flow-riders, stand up paddling, jet skiing, and kitesurfing, among others. For example, stand up paddle boarding, which is among the fastest growing watersport in the U.S., cannot be practiced in small pools since the desired sensation of paddling in a vast space is not achieved.    (vii) Many pools have strong chlorine or chemical smell, since their operation technologies and worldwide regulations require them to maintain a permanent and high residual chlorine level in the water in order to provide proper disinfection. Therefore, the chemical smell inhibits the illusion of being in a tropical paradise, and instead conveys the feeling of being in an artificial setting. Usually, pools need to maintain a minimum residual chlorine level of 1 ppm, which generates a highly noticeable chlorine smell.    (viii) Pools are generally not surrounded by tropical or beach-like scenery such as palm trees, and do not normally have docks or pontoons, as water sports are not practiced in such small pools. Therefore, the look and feel associated with idyllic beach life and a tropical paradise, which includes the practice of several water sports, is not created.
Based on the above, since life in cities has become more stressful and going to a Caribbean or other tropical beach is out of reach for most people (e.g., due to time, money, distance, or other constraints), the present invention overcomes, in a new and innovative manner, the aforementioned urban problem of lack of recreational spaces, by bringing beautiful tropical settings with pristine-clear waters and white sandy beaches to underutilized urban land or sites through a man-made urban beach entertainment complex with a centerpiece pristine-clear lagoon. Such entertainment areas are designed to change the lifestyle of people around the world by providing an idyllic beach-life setting that promotes relaxation and the enjoyment of pristine waters, by which conscious or subconscious stress can be reduced and mental and physical health can be improved. Different activities can be held around the centerpiece lagoon—including recreational, social, cultural, and sport activities which aim to transform the location into a beautiful, desirable landscape.